


Training Exercise

by shadowcat500



Series: Spectrum Side-Stories [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Dark, Gen, POV Third Person, Violence, dystopian setting, someone gets thrown off a high place and breaks something major so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 13:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18121250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowcat500/pseuds/shadowcat500
Summary: Crow’s already trained for this.





	Training Exercise

“Alright everybody!” The instructor’s voice roared over the noise of the crowd like a group of lions, shocking everyone into silence.  
“Alright. Now that you’re listening, 234B2BL18I25,” Her gaze focussed on a particular person (that had been muttering to the person next to him) who immediately yelped and went silent again. “Today’s agenda is climbing!”  
She began to pace back and forth, gesturing at the large screen above her with a laser pointer. “As enforcers of the Silver government, you have been enhanced beyond normal human abilities in order to protect our dear royal family.” The crowd began to cheer at the mention of the royal family.  
“AND AS SUCH,” The crowd went silent again at her voice. “You have been given enhanced climbing abilities, alongside many others. Today we will be practicing climbing, in order to test your abilities and mark how useful you will be in the long run.”

***

This was decidedly less fun than Crow thought it would be. Ok, I mean, getting selected to protect her beloved royal family was incredible and the best thing that had ever happened to her in her twenty-eight years of being alive, but there was no Chaser or Avia to make it more interesting!

...God, she missed those two.

Almost as much as she missed-

No! She was not allowed to think of him. Her brother was still out there, a criminal, needing to be stopped before he could hurt the city like the Blank scum he was. And it was her job to stop him, no matter who he was to her. It was a lesson drilled into her like the alphabet, back home at the Grey Initiative.

Anyway, back on the thoughts at hand, this was decidedly not as fun as she’d thought. As a pre-trained Grey, already knowledgeable in combat, climbing and all that jazz, she thought she’d get to skip this meaningless nonsense, but apparently not. Hadn’t these people read her file?

Whatever, she might as well outshine the competition and prove herself better anyway. 

Crow followed the crowd through a doorway that really was far too narrow to admit so many people safely to a large room that had every wall completely covered in climbing walls, almost floor-to-ceiling, but there was a tiny gap at the top for climbers to reach. Almost a challenge, for a Grey. In the centre of the room was a large pillar, also covered in climbing wall material, with a small platform at the top roughly the size of two people. 

“Alright everyone!” The instructor from earlier who had led them all through to the room clapped her hands and the crowd fell silent once more. The authority the woman carried was something Crow could respect, even if she couldn’t respect the woman’s absolutely mad hairstyle. “You already have tracers in your skulls, so there will be no queue for tracers. Climb the walls around this room as fast as possible. Cora Milene and Crow, you will both climb the large pillar instead. Now everyone, have at it!”

Everyone sprinted towards the walls, apart from Crow and some other girl with lilac hair, probably Cora. Crow hurled herself up the pillar with a running start from a leap with the enhanced muscles she’d already had four years worth of experience with, and began scuttling up the pillar like a spider. She’d always been one of the best climbers in the Initiative, and when she arrived at the top of the pillar that was easily over thirty meters tall in less than half a minute, it was pretty clear that the rumours were true. Crow wasn’t normally the type to blow her own trumpet, but it was true. 

A head’s worth of lilac hair soon poked up over the edge of the platform, followed closely by the rest of a girl who hauled herself up onto the platform and lay there gasping. 

“Hi there.” 

After a few minutes, when she’d stopped breathing like she’d been choked, Cora poked her head up and gave a bright and cheery “Hello!”

Crow paused at the enthusiasm. “You good?”

“Yep! Why were you picked to come up here?”

“None of your business. Why were you?” Crow knew she was being a hypocrite, but Cora seemed far too trusting to care.

“I was, uh....” Cora looked away, and Crow heard the lilac-haired girl’s heart begin to pound. “In the climbing team at school?” There was a questioning tone at the end of the sentence. Clearly lying. It was practically insulting.

Exaggerated cheeriness was always suspicious to be fair, not to mention Crow had gone through several lessons on detecting lies, and when every one of her instincts was screaming that this girl was a liar Crow trusted them. Honestly speaking, the girl was so blatantly lying, she’d practically screamed it. And if she was lying about that, the only reason she would have to lie is if she was a Blank, and Crow despised Blanks. Why would the Silvers allow ex-Blanks into the enforcer ranks?

Crow was almost excited. She’d never done an interrogation on another enhanced person before. It would be interesting to learn if her usual tactics would work.  
Crow sprang forwards and shoved Cora down onto the floor of the platform, not a hard task considering Cora’s exhaustion from the climb. “Liar!” Crow hissed in her ear, before grabbing her shoulders and dragging her over to the edge of the platform, slamming her back down with her head over the edge, staring at the drop to the ground. “Rule number one: never lie to a Grey. We always know!”

At this point, Cora was struggling under her grasp, attempting to push herself free before finally giving in. “Ok, ok! I lied! I was a Blank! My dad was a Blank, my mum was a Blank, my entire family were Blanks! Please just let me go!” Crying already. Pathetic. 

Crow grinned. “If you insist.” Crow picked up one of Cora’s legs and tossed her off the pillar, watching as she landed with an audible crack at the bottom.  
Well, that was that. Dominance achieved, Blank dealt with, end of story. At least she’d learned something of the body on the floor that was currently being scooped up onto a gurney. 

“Crow, get down here at once!” She heard the instructor below from the floor. Crow nodded and hurled herself off the pillar, landing lightly and the bottom and rolled out the momentum. (She’d fallen further before. Low terminal velocity was a staple of Grey surgery.)

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Excellent work!” The instructor clapped Crow on the shoulder, painfully tugging a few strands of Crow’s black hair. The instructor didn’t notice her yelp (to be honest Crow wanted to keep it that way), and continued “You spotted and dealt with a plant within minutes, alongside your excellent show of ability! Your reports were absolutely accurate on your efficiency my dear, you’ll be a qualified Enforcer in weeks!”

Crow grinned.

**Author's Note:**

> Look the weird jumpy writing was on purpose, it’ll make sense later I swear I’m finishing up another thing I promise it’ll make sense with more context
> 
> Electrify My Heart is still stuck in my head
> 
> Kudos and comments help fuel my writing ability, thanks have a nice day
> 
> Making no promises on the next updates haha


End file.
